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Time To Define Kinship Care
Time to Define is a major campaign from Family Rights Group to recognise, value and support kinship care for children who cannot remain at home. It starts with a single definition of kinship care written into legislation.
What is kinship care?
Thousands of family and friends step in every year to raise children who are unable to live with their parents. Such situations often arise out of tragedy or trauma. Often the children would otherwise live with strangers in the care system.
Kinship care can take different forms including kinship foster care, special guardianship, child arrangements orders, private fostering or private family arrangements.
Kinship care is often overlooked and undervalued
Currently, there is no single definition of kinship care in primary legislation. As a result, kinship carers can face many challenges including not being recognised in their parenting role by hospital services, schools, or employers.
It also means kinship care is interpreted in different ways by government, state agencies, services, and the public including kinship carers themselves. Families then face a postcode lottery in the support available to them locally. For many, there is little or no support for the child or themselves, particularly those with informal arrangements.
We know this is preventing children from receiving the support they need to live safely and thrive in their families
Caroline Lynch, Principal Legal Adviser, Family Rights Group
“Without an agreed definition, kinship carers can quickly run into a myriad of confusion and misunderstanding. At the very moment when the child they are caring for needs stability and support, kinship carers find they are having to constantly explain who they are and what they need.”
Kinship carer, Clare Walsh, faced problems when taking her nephew to hospital:
“If a legal definition had been in place, my nephew and I would still have had the usual scary experiences of early childhood illness – but we wouldn’t have had the extreme stress and fear that was forced on us because we had no legal status. I know so many carers who have experienced this, and we all felt the same fear and panic.”
We are calling on the Government to define kinship care clearly in law
A single definition of kinship care must be broad enough to ensure that no kinship carer is left out. It would cover all the different types of kinship care arrangement. It should be applied across national government and all parts of public life at a local level. From school admissions forms to DWP benefits assessments. From the NHS to local authority services.
This would provide the foundation for an effective kinship care support system
Meeting the definition could automatically passport kinship carers and their children to a minimum level of support and services. All kinship children, regardless of the type of arrangement they have, should be able to access crucial support to live safely and thrive in their family.
That support should include access to free legal aid and advice, paid employment leave akin to adoption leave, improved financial support, practical help including peer support, and educational and therapeutic support for kinship children.
Read our full proposal
The proposal has been informed by the views of thousands of kinship carers including members of our kinship carers’ panel and those who contact our specialist national advice service every year. It has also been influenced by research, and the policy and practice insights of Family Rights Group and other members of the Kinship Care Alliance.
Download
How kinship care could be defined
Our second paper considers what the legal definition of kinship carers could look like. We have drawn on our unique combination of legal and social work expertise, and direct work with families, to devise this draft definition. Kinship carers from our panel have helped us to think through language and practicalities.
DownloadOur progress so far
In May 2022, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care adopted our proposal for a new legal definition of kinship care, as part of a “fundamental shift in children’s social care”.
Fast forward to February 2023, the Government published their plans for children’s social care reform, Stable Homes, Built on Love. They consulted on a working definition of kinship care and we encouraged supporters to respond.
Government has since embedded the definition in statutory guidance and the landmark national kinship care strategy:
- Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023
- Children’s Social Care National Framework
- Championing Kinship Care
They have also committed to including it in updated kinship care statutory guidance for local authorities.
The Law Commission has also agreed to carry out a review of the legislative framework in relation to kinship care.
These are all important achievements that put a clear definition of kinship care in to the documents that local authorities and other key agencies working with families are following.
But Government must go further.
To give kinship care the recognition and status it deserves, across society and all the public agencies families come into contact with – the definition must be written into primary legislation.
Our campaign has gathered support from kinship carers, practitioners, politicians and organisations from across the sector, including:
Local Government Association
“We support the recommendation of the review to develop a new legal definition of kinship care, building on work by the Family Rights Group, to ensure that those caring for children in a range of circumstances are able to receive the support they are entitled to.”
Rt Hon Alan Johnson
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care
“National government should ensure kinship care in all its forms is recognised and understood including in national and local government policy making, by legislating for a universal definition of kinship care. It is time to define kinship care.”
Kinship Care Bill
In July 2022, Liberal Democrat MP and Education Spokesperson, Munira Wilson, introduced the Kinship Care Bill in the House of Commons. The Bill would provide a statutory definition of kinship care and make it easier for kinship carers to access support.
How you can help support the Time to Define Kinship Care campaign:
- Share the proposal on social media using the hashtag #TimeToDefine and tag us in @familyrightsgp
- Endorse the campaign either individually or as an organisation by completing the form below
- Write to your Member of Parliament or your local lead councillor for children’s services, and ask them to support the campaign
- Consider how your local authority or organisation can implement any of the recommendations in our proposal
Sign up to support our Time to Define Kinship Care campaign:
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